Ronald Edward Casteel

Ronald Edward Casteel, 74, of Jefferson City, died Sunday, December 7, 2014, at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital. He was born on August 10, 1940, in Bristol, Virginia, the son of the late Hobart Casteel and Hildred Kathleen Dickenson Casteel. He was married on December 21, 2004, in Jefferson City to Kathryn Diane Couch Riley who survives at the home. Ron worked for more than two decades as a news director and news anchor in broadcast markets including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, San Antonio, Shreveport, and Little Rock. His experience included serving as news director for KFRC, a legendary rock'n'roll radio station in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s, and a news reporter and anchor at KGO radio and television, the ABC-owned and operated station in San Francisco. In 1975, he was the first broadcast reporter to break news from the scene outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco for the ABC Radio Network about the assassination attempt on President Gerald R. Ford. He covered other major stories on the West Coast for ABC, including the 1960s campus protests, the Patricia Hearst kidnapping, and the Zodiac slayings. In Los Angeles in the early 1970s, he worked as a news anchor alongside the city's most popular morning disk jockey, Robert W. Morgan, at top rock'n'roll radio station KHJ. In the 70's he starred in the full feature film about the Golden Gate Bridge as "Ground Zero". This was one of the first terrorist films produced. He also wrote and directed the feature film "The Boy Who Talks to Whales." After retiring from broadcast journalism, Ron became a documentary filmmaker, producing films about historical subjects including Missouri outlaw Jesse James and tales and legends of the Ozarks. In Arkansas, he produced campaign videos for then-Governor Bill Clinton's re-election campaigns in the 1980s. Upon moving to Missouri in the early 1990s, Ron served as Communications Director for the Missouri Secretary of State, and as Communications Director for the Missouri Democratic Party. Prior to retirement, he served for several years as public and media spokesman for the Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan. An active member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Ron served as Lieutenant Commander-In-Chief, Chief Of Staff, and Media Committee Chairman for the national SCV organization. He was a member of the General William D. McCain SCV Camp, located at "Elm Springs," the national SCV headquarters in Columbia, Tennessee. A federally licensed Amateur Radio operator holding call sign N6CSS, he was a member of the American Radio Relay League and the Mid-MO Amateur Radio Club. Other survivors include three step-children and their spouses, Cary (Donna) Davis, Monroe, Louisiana; Kevin Todd (Dana) Riley, Jefferson City; and Amanda Riley Baker (Joel Rencher), Jefferson City; eight step-grandchildren; two sisters, Marlyn Buchannan, Apple Valley, California; and Benita (Glenn) Kliethermes, Holts Summit, Missouri; one brother, Darrell Casteel, State of Arizona; and numerous nieces and their families. Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, December 12, 2014, at Dulle-Trimble Funeral Home with the Rev. Kent W. Trimble and Mr. Scott Charton officiating. Visitation will be 10-11 a.m. Friday at the funeral home. Memorials are suggested to the International Headquarters of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, "Elm Springs", P.O. Box 59, Columbia, TN 38402; or the Mid-MO Amateur Radio Club in care of Dulle-Trimble Funeral Home, 3210 N. Ten Mile Drive, Jefferson City, MO 65109. Those wishing to email tributes or condolences to the family may do so at the www.dulletrimble.com website.